Pollen Baskets

I came across a field of pea partridge the other day, out at Nahant Marsh.  It is such a pretty plant that I couldn't help but stand there and admire the beautiful yellow flowers and the perfect, feathery leaves with their alternately compound pairs of leaflets.  I've blogged about it before, here:

http://foundonthetrail.blogspot.com/2012/09/pretty-pea-partridge.html

As I took in the beautiful field full of flowers, I noticed a bumblebee by the plants nearest me, quickly buzzing into blossom after blossom.  That guy was fast!  He would no more than stick his fuzzy head into one flower when he would be off to the next, lifting himself as if on an elevator made of air.

I realized there were a few more bees nearby.  And then, as I lifted my eyes across the tops of the plants, I realized that the whole field was percolating with thousands of bees.  That did my heart good!

I decided to see if I could photograph one of the bees.  They were so fast that it was hard to get a fix on them before they moved on.  They were often obscured by portions of the pea partridge plants.  Finally I got a few decent pictures.

Even with my naked eye I was able to distinguish a yellow glob on the hind legs of the bees.  "That  must be pollen," I thought  Sure enough.  What I was seeing, and what you can see in these pictures, is thousands and thousands of grains of pollen packed into the pollen baskets that these amazing creatures are equipped with.

According to my research, bumblebees basicly lick their front legs and then use their front legs to brush all the pollen from their head and body down to their back legs, where it is pressed into the pollen basket.

Based on the size of the pollen globule on this fellow, he's been hard at work!

You can see the yellow, dusty pollen coating this bee's head, legs and body.

Lucky Shot

I was photographing egrets and herons at Nahant Marsh the other day, and as usual, when I got home and examined my photos up close, I found I had captured some unexpected wildlife.  It was a lucky shot, really.  Take a look:

Yep!  My very first raccoons caught on camera, and I didn't even know they were there!  Cast your net upon the waters and you never know what you will find.

These carnivorous mammals look cute from a distance but trust me - they are vicious, destructive animals.  Campers beware!  Do not sleep with food in your tent.  If you do, you are just asking for trouble, and raccoons will bring it without a doubt.  Thankfully these two were eating natural foods, and not garbage from a dumpster.

A Whole Lotta Egrets!

Nahant Marsh is a local treasure-box of wildlife.  They recently posted on Facebook that they had had an "abundance" of egrets and heron lately.  I was able to get out there last Friday morning, and was delighted when I pulled up in the parking lot and saw this view:

How cool was that?  Five white egrets all right there.  I couldn't wait to get out on the dock and get some closer photos.  I hurried down the mowed path through the tall grass prairie and out onto the dock, intent on getting some awesome photos.  Click, click, click went my camera.  Such great shots!  And then I paused and looked off to the northeast end of the marsh.  Lo and behold!

Wow!  I was stunned by the sheer number of birds out there.  There were so many that I laughed out loud!  There were at least fifty egrets and herons, all mixed together at that end of the marsh.  I only had my zoom lens and so couldn't get a wide angle shot but here are some close-ups:

I think it is funny that I was so focused on the first five egrets I saw that I almost missed seeing ten times that number.  I wonder how often we are like that in life - just focusing in on what we think is the prize, when there's lots more in store for us if we just open our eyes and look around.

Nahant Marsh is a cool place. It used to be a private shooting club, and all that lead shot (tons and tons of it) began poisoning the animals in the marsh. Eventually it was dredged and restored.  Now it is an absolute gem, with a hugely diverse population of plants and animals.

Here's a link to the amazing cleanup story of the Nahant Marsh:
 http://www.fws.gov/contaminants/documents/nahant_web.pdf

The Buzz on Bergamot

Today's post is about bergamot - a lovely, lavender wildflower - also known as bee balm.  It grows along wood lines and in abandoned meadows in large groupings, growing to 4 1/2 feet or taller.  It has many medicinal uses.

The name "bergamot" is an unusual name, and led me on a merry chase back as far as 550 B.C. to ferret out its etymology.

This native wildflower is a member of the mint family, and has a lovely and unique fragrance.  The fragrance reminded its namers of the similar smell of a completely unrelated plant - the bergamot orange.  And so our story begins.

The bergamot orange grows chiefly in southern Italy.  The fruit is the size of an orange, but it is greenish-yellow in color.  It has a bitter taste, so people don't generally eat it outright or juice it.  However, it is grown for its essential oils.  The unique aroma is, according to Wikipedia, evident in Earl Grey tea - much-loved by the famed Captain Jean-Luc Picard, of the starship Enterprise.

Back to my main theme.  The bergamot orange takes its name from the town of Bergamo, Italy, where - presumably - many of these oranges grow.

So how did the town of Bergamo get its name?  Let me tell you.  Bergamo comes from the Roman name of Bergomum.  And before it was latinized as Bergomum, it was called Berghem by the ancient celts who settled there.

And Berghem?  Berghem comes from the Old English (and prior to that the Proto-Germanic) "berg", meaning "mountain", and "hem" meaning "dwelling place".  Thus we have the origin for the name of this wildflower that grows innocuously on the Illinois savannas.  Who knew that such a little flower could have such a loaded name?

The Bluebird of Happiness That Wasn't

I was on a mission.  Hyperion & I were on a gator in the back forty at Loud Thunder, transporting critical fire-starting materials to our fellow campers. Suddenly we crossed paths with a stunning bird!  He sped into view and lit on the ground in front of us, looking for water in an old puddle.

"Look, it's a blue bird!" Hyperion shouted over the noise of the gator.

"Stop!  Stop!" I yelled, scrambling for my camera.  I had never photographed a bluebird before!

The bird hopped down the trail in front of us a couple of times and then soared into the treetops.

With our naked eyes, we thought it was a bluebird.  It certainly was blue. However, upon examining this digital image, I realized that no - this was not an Eastern bluebird!  They have brown breasts.  So what was it?  I noted the two-toned beak, with the upper beak actually curving, and the deeper bluish-purple on the head.  Purple is not a common bird color in the Illinois woodlands.  I soon discovered that this was an indigo bunting!

This one is a male.  The females are always brown.  The scientific name is Passerina cyanea.  A passerine is a sparrow or a sparrow-like bird.  Cyanea comes from Greek, meaning "dark blue" - you know, like the color cyan.  Indigo comes from another Greek word that stands for "dye from India".

So, in the end, this wasn't my bluebird of happiness.  Instead, it was my indigo bunting of happiness - a lovely jewel in the crown of my conclave weekend.

Mystery Solved

I have been wondering what this plant was for a while now:

Do you know it?

Every time I have seen it, I have photographed it, and then searched my field guides for it.  I tried googling it by putting in key words representing its most outstanding features.  No luck - until last week.

It's elderberry!

Most photos I've found on this plant online focuses on the white blossoms, rather than the beautiful, net-like appearance of its stalks and stems.

Elderberry a native plant, and is common in Iowa and Illinois.  It is an important food source for songbirds.  Deer, squirrels and mice also eat it.  Its scientific name is Sambucus.  While the plant can be poisonous, people do use the berries for food and to make drinks.  The wood has been used around the world to make musical instruments.

Elderberry has an amazing history, and I can't resist sharing with you a link to a super-informative online paper about elderberry for your further reading pleasure.  It was written by Charles E. Voigt, entitled "Elderberry, Herb of the Year 2013".  Here's the link:  http://jhawkins54.typepad.com/files/elderberry-hoy-document.pdf .

In his section on the history and lore of the plant, Voight states the following on the fascinating etymology of the name:

"Elderberry has been involved with human history for hundreds of years. Sambucus comes
from the Greek word “sambuke,” a musical instrument made of elder wood, whose music was
believed to heal the spirit. (In Europe, Elderberry wood was used for making musical
instruments.) The common name “elder” comes from the Anglo-Saxon “ellen”, meaning firekindler, because of the dry, pithy stems."

Two Leaves

I think these two leaves are both masterpieces - each in their own way.

Sometimes, I just can't get enough of leaves!

A Wren

This is Awren.

 She was named by a camp staff member out at Loud Thunder - quite cleverly too, I think.

She lives out at the Eco-Con shed, in a birdhouse.  She put up with weeks of Boys Scouts and Cub Scouts and church campers working and playing in close proximity to her home.  Perhaps this is why, as Jason tells me, that she was not afraid of people.  Reportedly, the only time she would fly away was if you actually looked directly into her birdhouse.

Brilliant Swamp Milkweed

This brilliantly-colored swamp milkweed caught my eye the other day:

I loved the deep pinky-purpose blossoms.

This was quite a tall and robust specimen.  Must be a great swamp!

Spotted Sandipiper

I was walking along the Mississippi River yesterday, and saw a streak of movement against the muddy shoreline.

When I turned to look more closely, it wasn't there.

This happened again and again until I realized that there were some little birds dashing about who were perfectly camouflaged.

Here are the same two pictures, with the fledglings circled.

It was a nest of little spotted sandpipers.  They slipped away up the shore and I was left with just a few fleeting glimpses.

An ever watchful parent was not far away - probably the dad, since they do the raising of the little ones.

Thankfully I had a couple of clear enough shots that I could I.D. the birds.

Spotted sandpipers are one of the most easy shorebird to identify - luckily for me.  Their spotted breast (prominent during mating season) and the white and black eyelines help distinguish them from other sandpipers.

Tempting Teasel

Are those frosted cupcakes out in that field, atop the tall grasses?

Teasel Cupcake

No, those are teasel pods with the blossoms forming a mirage of baked sweets.

Teasel is considered an invasive species.  It was brought to North America as an ornamental, and possibly for use in the woollen industry.   (Dried teasel pods were used to raise the nap of woollen fabric in the old world.)

The fanciful images of these coned pods caught my attention.  I have seen them brown and dried in the winter, but had never seen them in bloom before, which happens in July and August.

Wedding Cake Teasel

Teasel is a biennial plant.  In the first year of its growth, it forms a large rosette of leaves on the ground.  The second year, these tall spikes grow, averaging around six feet in height.  Such large and aggressive growth crowds out the natural species that would otherwise grown in their place.

The Nose Has It!

Birds have external nostrils, called nares.  They are not always obvious, but in this picture of a seagull below, you can see the bird's left nare quite clearly.  It is the oval-shaped hole in the upper beak.

Seagulls and a couple of other bird families have unique nares, in that you they don't have a dividing wall between them (a septum).  So in gulls, like this one, you can look through one nostril and clear through to the other side.

Some birds, like adult cormorants, don't have functional nares.  This makes sense, because they are constantly diving and it wouldn't be healthy for water to flood their respiratory system through an open nare.

Most birds seem to have exposed nares, but some are covered with feathers.  The ptarmigan is one of these.  The theory behind this is that the feathers help warm the frigid, arctic air where ptarmigans live before being taken into the body.

Beaks & Bills - Part 3

Continuing in my series on beaks and bills, we are going to take a quick look at woodpeckers and pelicans today.

Woodpeckers obviously have specialized beaks.  They are short, strong, and chisel-shaped - perfect for pecking holes in trees.  They also use these tapered beaks to get  into and under the tree bark in order to find insects to eat.

Yellow-bellied sapsuckers, who are in the woodpecker family, use their beaks to "drill" holes into trees until they can get to the sap running underneath.  Rather than sucking up the sap, as their name erroneously implies, they lap up the sap with their tongues.  (For a picture of their handiwork, go to this previous post:of mine, "Evidence of Wild Animals" and look at the last photo in the post, here:   http://foundonthetrail.blogspot.com/search/label/Amphibians .)
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Compare those little beaks to the relatively enormous beaks of pelicans.  Pelican beaks have a flexible lower portion that can stretch and contract.  Look at the difference in beaks between these two pelicns in this picture below:

The lower bird has its beak neatly "folded", while the upper bird has just finished dipping his beak into the water, which is how they fish.  They scoop up fish and water - up to three gallons at a time.  The water drains out and the fish remain.

Beaks & Bills - Part 2

As I said in yesterday's post, some bird beaks are shaped to tear, such as this one (below).  This bald eagle was injured and is now a resident at a local zoo.  That is the only reason I was able to get such a clear shot of its beak with my camera.  You can see the sharp, pointed hook on the curved tip of the upper beak - the perfect tool to help birds of prey open their meals.  You also get a sense of how powerful this bird's beak really is when you look at it up close like this.

On the other hand, some birds have long, spear-like beaks, such as this great blue heron (below).  Heron's need such long, sharp bills for their water fishing.  They can actually spear their prey (usually fish) with their powerful, tapered beaks.

Their beak fits their carnivorous dietary requirements and their watery habitats.  That is why a much smaller, cone-shaped bill, such of that of the seed-eating grosbeak, wouldn't work on the heron.  Seeds are not generally what they are after. although they do consume them at times.

Beaks & Bills - Part 1

Can you identify this bird?  I couldn't, at first.  When I photographed it, it was too far away in the trees for me to see it properly.  When I saw this picture up close, thanks to the zoom feature in my photo program, I still had to stop and think about it.  The most easily identifiable feature of this bird was hidden from view on its breast, but I didn't know that.

The back view of this bird was not familiar to me.  All I could see was a black-head bird, a black back with white feathers, and whitish side breasts.  Woodpeckers have black and white backs, but this bird wasn't shaped like a woodpecker.  It was more round.  The beak really gave it away.  It is more massive than a woodpecker's beak.  Sure enough, when I did a little research, I was able to confirm that this is a Red-breasted grosbeak.

Had I seen it from the front, I would have been able to identify it very quickly.  To see what I mean, look here:  http://foundonthetrail.blogspot.com/search/label/Rose-breasted%20Grosbeak .

"Beak" is self-explanatory, but what about "gros"?  It comes from French, and means large, or thick.  Cardinals have this same powerful, cone-shaped beak.  It is a great for cracking open seeds, which is the main part of their diet.

Now take a look at this wren's bill, below.  ("Beak" and "bill" can be used interchangeably, but beaks are more for tearing, like an owl would do with their prey, and bills are more for catching insects from the air.)  You can see how thin and elongated this wren's bill is, compared to the grosbeak above.

Beak and bill shapes can reveal a lot about a bird's diet, and are key features to observe when you are trying to identify birds.

What's There?

There's lots of foliage here in Iowa, and it makes for good hiding for wild creatures.  You never really know what's out there in it.  You drive by a little stand of trees or walk in a city park, and for the most part you are completely unaware of what is hiding just a few feet from you.

Take a look here.  What do you see?

Bedded down in those cool green weeds is one of the larger North American mammals - a whitetail buck.  See him?  You can just make out parts of his antlers in the lower left-hand portion of the picture.

When I took the picture above, I couldn't see him, but I knew he was there.  He had just startled a little, when a nearby man clapped his hands together to call for his dog.  The noise cause the deer to raise his antlered head a little, and turn toward the sound.  I tried to get him in my viewfinder, but he had already sunk back into the weeds.

I stepped closer, trying to see where he was.  He raised his head up and looked around, directly at me.  Suddenly I was thinking of all those heedless tourists in Yellowstone Park who approach wild elk, bison and bears, and get trampled, gored and mauled.

As I wondered how just how many feet actually separated us, he rose and stared straight at me.

Deer have been known to attack humans, although it is rare.   You should not mess with them during mating season, or in the spring when they have their fawns, or with a sick or injured animal, or anytime, really.

To tell the truth, I was surprised that this one had not simply turned tail and run away, which is what they usually do.  That made me a little nervous.  I thought about the heat wave we'd been having, and how sever heat can cause wild animal great distress, making them even more unpredictable than usual. 

I did not approach any closer, or do anything startling.  After checking me out for a minute, he casually leapt over the log behind him, and disappeared.

There wasn't much place for him to go.  As I found out when I checked the location on Google Earth later, he had been hiding  in a narrow island of trees running between two rows of houses, in the midst of urban sprawl.  Makes you wonder what else is out there, so close by and yet unseen.

American Bellflower

This pretty flower is the American bellflower - also known as the tall bellflower.  I've passed these native wildflowers many a time on the trail at camp while walking from Eco-Con to the council ring, not knowing what they was but always admiring their color.  Today, I finally looked them up!

As you can see, they have five petals, all coming together in a white, inner ring.  The blossoms grow on long stalks, and range in color from light blue to purple.  That's one reason I like these beautiful bolts so much - those are some of my favorite colors!

It is unique in that it is not as bell-shaped as most other flowers in its group.  It's scientific name, Campulastrum americana, is taken from the Latin "campana", which means "bell".

Chillin'!

Last week we were suffering heat waves and warnings all over the state.  That's when I happened to get a picture of this guy:

We were visiting Grinnell College in central Iowa.  It was 92 degrees, and we were all baking in the sun as we took a walking tour of the campus.  But this squirrel had it figured out.  He sprawled himself against the relatively cool bark of this tree, enjoying what shade was to be had.  Staring at me with a glassy look, he did not seem phased when I turned paparazzi on him.

Adding to the humor of the moment were these Dr. Seuss -like "sweaters", adorning the trees in this little park on campus.  It made me chuckle to see this chillin' Grinnellian and these multi-colored tree adnorments.

Multiflora Rose

Due to the wet spring we had here, the raspberries were at least two weeks behind when we arrived at summer camp.  No trailside snacking for me this year!  However, this meant that there were new sights and smells to be enjoyed, such as the blossoms and fragrance of the wild rose.

I have not noticed such an abundance of wild roses before.  There were so many of them, that the sweet smell of their blossoms wafted through the air and attracted my attention as I walked the camp trails.

The wild rose, like the raspberry cane, has thorns, and sometimes a reddish stem.

This scrubby multiflora rose is an invasive species.  It was brought here in the mid-1800's from Asia, and spread pretty much like wild fire.  I've rarely taken a walk in the woods where I haven't seen them.  Farmers try to combat them, but no matter how many times you mow them down, and no matter how much livestock you have in a pasture trampling them, they keep coming back.

In spite of knowing how much trouble they can be, I couldn't help but enjoy them.  And they do have a benefit.  Birds and even deer will eat the rose hips that form later in the season.